


Fickle Thing Called Love

by BirdestofBrains



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: Boys Being Boys, F/M, M/M, Sexuality Crisis, nick is jealous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 01:52:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16609616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BirdestofBrains/pseuds/BirdestofBrains
Summary: Nick envies Sabrina's love for Harvey, but he's not quite sure he understands it. She's powerful and stubborn, and he's... mortal and a bit annoying. Still, he's agreed to help protect Harvey from the Thirteen. And if he tries to understand why Sabrina loves Harvey so much in the meantime? Sue him. He's already said he's open to sharing.





	Fickle Thing Called Love

The sounds outside had stopped, but after what they had just experienced, neither wanted to underestimate the Red Angel of Death. Pressed together, side by side, Nick and Harvey waited. Seconds turned into minutes. Somehow, with the silence between them, the ten minutes they waited with nothing to show seemed like hours.

“Do you think – ” Harvey was the first to break the silence. He had taken to clutching his rifle to his chest, a detail Nick had noted with only a quirk of his eyebrow. He looked every inch the scared, ignorant witch hunter his ancestors had been, “Should we check?”

Nick gazed into Harvey’s eyes and for a second felt envy at the open fear reflected within them. It was probably for the best if he didn’t show emotion, since he was the one who was supposed to know everything, “I think that would be best.”

They both stood and cleared the barricade from the door, taking care to stop and listen, in case the rider was there, waiting for them to make a mistake. But there was nothing. Nick moved to open the door first, but Harvey stepped in front of him, toting the gun as if he could protect the warlock. It amused Nick, the arrogant chivalry of the mortal, so he let him. The gun poked out first, aimed at nothing, and then Nick forced his way through to scan the area.

When it was clear they really were safe from their assailant, Harvey sighed in relief, collapsing against the door frame, “What happened?”

Nick took more time with his relief, trying to decide what was most likely to have happened. He had his guesses, seven of them flirting more prominently in his mind, but there was a common denominator between most of them, “I’m pretty sure your girlfriend just saved the entire town.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.” The defense was so quick that Nick turned his head to look at the tired boy, eyebrows quirked. Harvey noticed the attention and clarified, “Not anymore.”

Nick bit the tip of his tongue at that. There was plenty he could say, plenty he had wanted to say when he first arrived. That Harvey wasn’t worth Sabrina, that he couldn’t appreciate what she was giving up to protect him. The longer he spent in the mortal’s presence, however, the less thrilling the rebukes seemed. There was something so perfectly naïve and old fashioned about Harvey. His foolish bravery was so unlike most witches he met. He could see why Sabrina might find him fascinating, but love…

“Why did you even come here?” Nick looked up to see Harvey staring at him, expecting an answer. The mortal probably assumed the worst of him, that he was here to woo Sabrina, replace Harvey now that the two were split. He wasn’t entirely far off, but Nick was getting tired of people assuming everything he did was entirely selfish, even if it was true.

“She asked me, so I came.”

“No but… Why?” Nick heard the desperation in Harvey’s voice. When he looked up, it shone even more clearly in his eyes, “Are you – Are you guys – ”

Nick decided it wasn’t that fun to watch the mortal torture himself in this way, “She loves you, mortal.” He gazed down, not ready to see the confusion of a man not realizing the gift he was throwing away, “She’d die for you. Maybe that’s worth forgiving her.”

There was silence, as Harvey considered his words. Nick gazed out again at the sky, wondering what Sabrina had had to give up in order to get rid of the Thirteen like she did. He was under no illusion that their protection spells had been what saved them. He was powerful, yes, but this was another kind of magic altogether. 

“How do you know?” When Harvey spoke again, it was softer. Weaker. Nick didn’t know if he wanted to comfort the boy or slit his throat for being so dense.

“That she loves you? I may be a different species entirely, but I have eyes,” He scoffed. Harvey made an adorable sound in the back of his throat, one that sounded like protest. Nick amended his statement, slightly, “Plus she’s told me.”

“She told you?!”

“Look, I might not be mortal like you, I may not have known her as long as you, but you need to get off your high horse, farm boy, and realize that she has people other than yourself that care about her. I can see how much it’s hurting her not to be with you,” Nick frowned at Harvey, eyeing him in a way he could see made the other boy uncomfortable. He was attractive, yes, but not uniquely so, “What I can’t tell is why she cares so deeply.”

“If she cared, she wouldn’t have brought Tommy back,” Harvey scoffed. “She would have told me about her magic.”

“And risked her safety? It was your people that drove us to secrecy, that murdered the very witches she gave herself to stop tonight. She’s a more forgiving witch than the rest of our people, and it would do you well to remember that,” Nick watched Harvey set his jaw. Stubborn as well as stupid. Suddenly he very much wanted to see how Sabrina and Harvey interacted, their stubborn wills butting heads. Perhaps their wills drew them to physical passions. Or perhaps idiotic, heroic plots. He assumed it was more of the latter. “Her bringing Tommy back was the height of that love. She knew you were hurt and couldn’t bear to see it. She thought Tommy’s death was her fault, and did everything she could to set it right. Everything she does is for you.”

“I don’t – ”

“Of course you don’t understand!” Harvey retreated from Nick’s sudden anger, but he had something to say and wasn’t going to stop until Harvey heard it, “Of course you don’t understand how strong and selfless Sabrina is. You don’t appreciate her, or anything she does for you. What makes you so damn special, mortal? What makes you the one she’s chosen?”

They were standing face to face, the tight fit of the door-frame meaning their lips were only inches away. Nick could feel Harvey’s hot breath, his hesitation. He could lean forwards and steal a kiss, but that wasn’t his style. He had to be given it, of Harvey’s own free will. That was the big thing about mortals, right? Their free will? 

“I don’t know,” Harvey admitted, staring at Nick’s lips. The mortal didn’t look entirely put off by their distance, or Nick would have stepped away. His puppy dog face collapsed into confusion, and yes, Nick could see the attraction in his wide, longing eyes. “There’s nothing special about me.”

Nick wasn’t satisfied with that. “She loves you. She’s given everything for you. I want to know why. I want to know what this love is, this true love that I know you two share. Not shared, but share. You still love her, I see it in your eyes.” He inched closer, “Can I try? Even for a second? I just want to understand.”

Harvey relented, leaning down to close the gap and press their lips together. It wasn’t hellfire and ice and coals, like it was with the witches and warlocks Nick had kissed before. There was something sweeter there, more innocent. Maybe he could taste Sabrina on Harvey’s lips. Or maybe there was something about mortality that was simplistic and raw, not smoky from years of magic in the blood. Whatever it was, it didn’t taste like love. But it was closer than he had ever gotten before.

Harvey was the first one to pull back, pupils blown. Nick found a point of pride in the farm boy’s clear lust, but for once sex wasn’t what he was after. He wondered off-handedly what he looked like through Harvey’s eyes, if the confusion was finally showing through the cracks in his façade that had been appearing ever since he began interacting with the half-witch.

“You should go,” Harvey spoke up. Nick’s eyebrows raised, and he worried for a second that the kiss had gone on too long, that he had made the boy uncomfortable. He had asked permission, but there hadn’t been verbal consent. Maybe he – “Just – My dad’s going to be coming up soon and he’s… Not going to understand.”

Oh. It wasn’t a dismissal after all, “Of course.” Nick ran his hand through his hair, fitting it back into place as well as he could, considering their ordeal. Now that he was thinking about it, he was dead tired, and still curious at what Sabrina had done to stop the Thirteen, “Call me up next time a witch is trying to murder you, yeah?”

He stepped out, ready to head home, when an arm reached out to hold him back. He turned to look at Harvey, the farm boy’s face still crinkled adorably, “Nick?”

“That’s the name.”

“Is it all true? What you said about Sabrina and – love?”

Nick softened. His heart, as shriveled and blackened by hellfire and lust as it might be, beat for Harvey and his struggle. “Your love is like none I’ve ever seen. I’m a greedy man, I fully admit I would take it in an instant if I could have someone look at me with the expression she gets when she talks about you. Witches don’t get that. Your love is a feeble, fragile, confusing mortal thing. I won’t pretend to understand it. But if I were you – Which I wish to Satan I was – I would hold onto it.”

Harvey’s grip loosened. He stared determinedly at the ground and Nick pretended not the see the water in the mortal’s eyes, “Thank you, Nick.”

“Anytime,” Nick offered a cheeky wink and teleported away. And if the taste of sweet, naïve mortality stayed on his mind for days to come, well, who was to know?


End file.
